After His Time
by inkland
Summary: Aileen thinks she's just another unwanted orphan, her parents dead and her guardian can't be bothered to visit her. But what happens when she turns 11 and strange things begin to happen?
1. Default Chapter

halo's to everyone! remember my first fic? well, hey to those who've read it, and hi to those who haven't. I changed some things of the original story, hope you still like it...I give you: the modified version! DISC: I don't own JK Rowling's characters *sniff*  
  
CHAPTER 1  
  
Aileen  
  
'The stereotype of a witch as a human being who was usually a woman, sometimes a man and even a child, bound to the devil by a pact of his assistant, developed as a by-product of the campaign of the Inqui...  
  
"Enough!!" Aileen cried suddenly, snapping close her history book and throwing it aside.  
  
She sighed, blowing a black strand of messy hair away from her frowning face.  
  
"I hate school, I'm tired of teachers, of living in this mess of boarding house, and I'm tired of being...normal" she ended, starting aloud, but her voice failed to come out from her throat at this point.  
  
She walked to her brass stead bed and allowed herself to fall on it, making the strings underneath squeak. She closed her eyes, her head sinking in her pillow, and before she could stop herself, she was dreaming again.  
  
Aileen usually spent her day dreaming about wonderful and magical places, people with magic powers, secrets buried long ago in time... She was a bit old for that though. Aileen was almost 11 years old, looked more like a 12 and acted like she was 14.  
  
Her life was hard, making her early mature, but still, she always had time for daydream.  
  
Aileen had been there since she could remember. To tell the truth, she had no clue about life before she was put in that boarding house.  
  
She had no parents, and according to Mrs. Inglet the school director, she had no relatives. For God's sake, she didn't even know her real name! Aileen was just kind of a nickname she had adopted when she had come into the Grendowy's House for Ladies, but before that, she could swear she had had another name.  
  
Aileen was too tall for her age, about 5'5. She had very messy shoulder length black hair that kept falling over her bright emerald green eyes. Her skin was tanned, result of being so many hours in the field under the warm summer sun.  
  
Aileen hated her routine life. Morning: bathe. Breakfast, and if it was Monday or Wednesday, help in the kitchen. School, school, school. Lunch. school, school, school, supper, homework, and bed.  
  
"At least the other girls have family to go to after school is over," Aileen always said, but if Mrs. Inglet heard her, she would surely expel her after giving her a long lecture of how she had always been an ungrateful scum-bag.  
  
Aileen did have a guardian. But she had no idea who he was, and he had never invited her to know him. She had never seen him, she didn't even know his name. Mrs. Inglet always called him 'your guardian,' if she ever happened to talk about him, which wasn't very often. The only thing she was sure of was that he was a man. And Mrs. Inglet didn't care who or what he was as long as she received her money on time.  
  
At Grendowy's, every girl had to help with the school chores, even if it was only dusting the erasers of the blackboard. It was part of some school policy, or something like that. And it just happened Aileen had a knack for attracting the most boring and difficult chores. For example, today she had to pick up the black litter bag the gardener had filled with the dead raked leaves and drag it all the way up to the school's door which was a good distance away from the actual school building.  
  
But did Mrs. Inglet care if she got zero score in her history test because her chores took most of her free time? "No," Aileen answered herself, trying to find the most comfortable spot in her bed. 


	2. nightmare

heehee, here's the second chapter!  
  
CHAPTER 2  
  
Day nightmare  
  
Aileen woke up to the darkness of the night...  
  
Night! She had dozed off, sleeping through the afternoon. With no supper! Without doing her afternoon chores!  
  
Now she had it. She could almost hear Mrs. Inglet footsteps coming to get her.  
  
She looked around, expecting Mrs. Inglet to burst in her room any second now... But wait a minute...she wasn't at Grendowy's. This wasn't her bedroom.  
  
Where was her old and squeaky bed? Her things, her few clothes a mess in the bottom of her wardrobe? Where was everything?  
  
Aileen's breath was coming out in short, nervous gasps. Just then, she realised she wasn't alone.  
  
A shadow in the corner, standing with folded arms. It looked like a man, but his face was shadowed. Had Mrs. Inglet taken advantage of her sleep to kick her out without her noticing and sending her somewhere else with this...man? was it her guardian? She shook her head. Mrs. Inglet was bad, but not evil.  
  
So, what was she doing here? She looked around, there had to be an exit. Yes! There was a door, slightly ajar. Aileen walked towards it, but it burst open before she could reach the handle. Aileen fell on the floor with a dry 'thump.'  
  
She looked up, at the dimly illuminated face. Her heart gave a jump. A man dressed in uniform...The police!! Now she was in serious problems, though she couldn't remember of having done anything.  
  
She looked around again. The strange man in the corner that had been there minutes ago was gone. The police looked down blankly, like he wasn't really looking at her, but at something next to Aileen.  
  
He stretched out his hand to Aileen. He closed firm fingers around her shoulder and began shaking her.  
  
"Look what I found" he said, and Aileen, too shocked by the surprise and the pain in her back, could only think he was referring to her.  
  
"Officer, I was...I swear I didn't...I don't know" she tried to explain, but the policeman's grip on her shoulder tightened, hurting her. Aileen got scared. "Sir, I" she gulped.  
  
"There's no but Miss, now get up!" the cop said, his voice sounding strangely like a woman's.  
  
He was now shaking her by the shoulder like trying to break her arm apart from her body. "No, no!!" Aileen shouted and broke loose.  
  
"What is it with you!! Get up, you'll be late for the garbage truck!" a familiar voice shouted in her ear. Aileen sprang up from bed as if someone had pinched her bottom.  
  
"Miss Hornell! Oh thank you for waking me up, I was having the most horrible..."  
  
"I don't care if you dreamt you were walking with talking trees, now get up and you better get that @ss of yours down to the field or you can start feeling sorry you met me!!" the woman shouted, her body swelling up like a balloon.  
  
''Dear God, they think they're soo witty,' Aileen thought, but said: "Yes ma'am" martially. Miss Hornell strode out of the room, just as Aileen muttered, "Already feeling sorry," and after hopelessly attempting to tie her wild hair in a ponytail, she ran out of her room, to the apple trees, half tied hair bouncing as she skipped down the stairs. 


	3. the letter and the tree

CHAPTER 3  
  
The Letter and the Tree (I'm not very good at titles as you can see...)  
  
"You goddam bag!!" Aileen cursed as she landed with an unpleasant squelch on a particularly dark puddle of mud. Her old grey dungarees were now poo brown.  
  
"Now I do look great" she sighed, trying to clean her muddy face with the back of her hand, only spreading the dirt across her face. She sighed again and glared at the black litter bag in front of her, which had ripped in the middle, scattering its contents around.  
  
The sun hit her face sideways, burning the left, leaving the right in cool darkness. Her hair was muddy, and loose...and messy. It had been hours ago when she had finally realised her hair was impossible to tame. She was in the apple orchard, which had about 3 apple trees, but Mrs. Inglet like to call it 'the orchard,' anyway.  
  
As she looked around for the rake to try and put all the leaves together, she heard a hooting sound somewhere from above. Looking at the sky, she saw a handsome barn owl circling around an apple tree. Distracted by the fact there was an owl flying in daylight, it took her a good time to realise she was staring at something thick and yellow the bird held in its beak.  
  
The owl dropped a letter. Aileen's jaw dropped open in surprise. Owl mail? She wanted to rub her eyes, just to make sure she wasn't seeing things, but stopped. Her hands were dirty; she didn't want to get an infection.  
  
The letter swirled graciously in the air for a moment and then landed on top of the apple tree in front of Aileen. "Great" the girl said through gritted teeth. She wanted to take the letter, but would break her leg if she tried to climb the thing, and she was risking more that a broken member if anyone saw her hanging from the branch of one of Mrs. Inglet's precious apple trees.  
  
An idea popped in her head. She looked at the basketful of apples she was supposed to take later to the school's kitchen. Apples...tree...letter... "I know!" She said out loud, but felt an odd embarrassment for talking to herself.  
  
She grabbed an apple, and threw it at the tree, aiming for the letter. Missed. But there were still plenty of apples left in the basket for her to try again, and the day was long.  
  
She hopelessly shot more apples at the envelope, and just when she thought she better hit the trunk for all the good it did, she hit it. The letter dropped and fell in the ground with an unusually loud 'tonk,' and just as Aileen dashed to get it...  
  
" Aileen!!! WHAT-DO-YOU-THINK-YOU'RE-DOING!!" Hornell bellowed, striding towards her, waving her arms like a windmill, her face as red as a boiled tomato  
  
"Uh-oh" Aileen muttered, forgetting completely about the letter and feeling she had just managed to get in serious trouble. 


	4. Breaking the Glass

Chapter 4  
  
Breaking the glass  
  
Aileen felt her knees weaken as she kneeled on the ground, her face washed in mud and the empty apple basket next to her. "I, I...Miss Hornell,"  
  
"Shut up you miserable, lazy, ungrateful scum!" Hornell shouted, taking her by an arm and jerking her up. Aileen winced in pain.  
  
"Don't you twitch your face at me! What were you planning by throwing those apples! Now you'll have to work the double! No complains Miss, it's about time you understand life is here, not in your stupid fantasy world. Got it? Wake up Aileen! You don't even know your real name, you have no family. You have to learn to live on your own, no one will be there to help you out when you're stuck! Got it? NO ONE! You only have yourself, get that into your thick skull before its too late!!," Hornell shouted in Aileen's left ear.  
  
Aileen's blood boiled in fury. How dared she? What did she know about her family, and did she care? But Aileen knew better than argue. "Go get stuffed Hornell," she thought, her bright green eyes sparkling with furious tears behind the curtain of black hair.  
  
As Aileen followed Miss Hornell to Mrs. Inglet's office, she kept telling herself that if she behaved calmly and bit her tongue, nothing would go wrong. Mrs. Inglet would surely keep a cool and civilised temper toward her (very unlike Miss Hornell,)and she was only to expect a little scolding. To hell with the apples! They were just fruits!  
  
Miss Hornell knocked on a beautifully carved door with a brass plate that read "Mrs. Inglet, Principal," with Aileen glaring behind her. The woman went inside, leaving Aileen to stand on the doorway. A moment later, a hoarse woman's voice called her inside. Aileen took a deep breath and walked into the office, telling herself that it couldn't be that bad.  
  
* * * *  
  
It was worse than she had ever expected. Both Miss Hornell and Miss Inglet glared at her as though she had just set fire to the school.  
  
For a warm up, Mrs. Inglet yelled at her, the words barely distinguishable in the shower of spit. Between the few words Aileen understood was: never, ashamed, orphan, apples and madness. Then Miss Hornell, who had never been fond of Aileen, went off the topic.  
  
She began telling Mrs. Inglet (ignoring Aileen completely,) how abandoned kids like Aileen usually showed certain inclination for illegal acts, and that according to the statistics (which Aileen was sure Miss Hornell had just invented them,) 85% of the criminals now had been abandoned by their parents as a child or had had a very violent childhood.  
  
She then talked about Aileen as if she was the cause of all the evil in the world. How she had always caused trouble, never said thank you for the sacrifices the school and its teachers were doing to try inculcate some manners on her vicious self, and that surely that had been the reason her parents had dumped her, they knew she had no future. Not to mention her guardian, who couldn't be bothered to free the school once in a while of her presence.  
  
Aileen had reached a point beyond anger. With every word they said, she could feel fire eating her insides, burning to be let out, and when Miss Hornell began talking about couples that bred like rats without thinking about the disastrous consequences, the girl felt her heart pumping madly. All of her blood seemed to have concentrated in her face, which was a furious red, and her arms and fingertips were tickling with some strange and powerful energy.  
  
All the things she had been blamed for during her whole life suddenly seemed to roll up in a big snowball size hatred ball that Aileen directed to the large glass window behind Mrs. Inglet. Aileen clenched her fists in anger and concentrated on the window. She didn't know what she was doing, but suddenly, everything around her turned black, leaving only the window. Even the voices of the two women vanished, leaving a furious, gushing sound like that of a waterfall. "Explode...blow apart...in pieces...NOW!"  
  
"I've said it before, and I'll say it again, this biological disaster in front of us is of no good for the... AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!," Miss Hornell and Mrs. Inglet shouted at the same time as the window behind them suddenly exploded, sending a shower of glass shards all around the room.  
  
Aileen's green eyes opened widely in surprise, but she ducked instinctively, taking refuge under the large mahogany desk as broken pieces of glass flew in every direction 


	5. Yet another dream

CHAPTER 5 ~  
  
A Way Weird Dream  
  
Aileen turned in her bed for the umpteenth time. It was a while before she realised it would be a restless night. She sat up, her chin resting on her knees, the thin sheet she had for cover almost transparent with the pale glow of moonlight filtering through a gap in the curtains.  
  
She winced as she laid her head against the back of her bed. Even moving her little finger was much too painful.  
  
Her back was hot, as if they just had plunged her into a boiling, skin scalding bath. Her legs and arms looked as if she had raced through a thorny labyrinth, and every single muscle she could think of suffered a painful cramp and that included her tongue.  
  
Her tan face was lined with exhaustion and two patches of furious red coloured her cheeks. Heart beating still too fast, she recalled what had happened just a few hours ago.  
  
Mrs. Inglet and Miss Hornell had been shouting their heads off because of the stupid incident with the stupid apples. Then they had laughed at what Aileen was, and after that... This was the part where Aileen thought she had slipped into a too realistic daydream.  
  
The large window had shattered before her eyes, apparently on her command. No, it could NOT have been her. How many real 11 years old were able to make windows explode because they were in a bad mood? ...  
  
Still, it had helped her. Maybe Miss Hornell and Mrs. Inglet were so shocked/scared that they had dismissed her, ("Just for this time. One more unacceptable behaviour from you and you're out!" hear me? O-U-T!,") but unfortunately, they were not THAT freaked out to let her go without a severe and 'suitable' punishment.  
  
That night, there had been no proper supper for Aileen, because she had been working on till late night and the girl had to help in the field and the flowerbeds until she had reached the end of her resistance. Plus, everyday from now to a month, she would be working in the kitchen extra hours, covering other girl's turns, not leaving aside those two points less she would have for behaviour that month. Not that Aileen cared about what no mum or dad would say about her grades, but the sneering face of the old cow (alias Miss Hornell,) was an unbearable torture for her.  
  
She had finished about four hours ago, and crawling up the stairs had reached her bedroom, which to her bad luck was in the highest part of the large barn like house. The girl hadn't bothered to change into her pyjamas (anyway, she would be the one washing her laundry) and had expected to fall asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow, but surprise, she was still awake.  
  
She looked at her hands. Could it be possible that she, Aileen, had shattered the glass? Thinking hard about it, that was not the first time strange things happened around her. What about the time when she spilled a jar of water, and so panicked of what they would do to her if anyone saw the flood, all the water had suddenly vaporised. Or when she fell down the roof once and managed to get up with nothing more than a scratch? Aileen turned around in her bed again, her stomach protesting in hunger and her hands numb with pain. And all because the stupid letter she hadn't been able to take anyway...and she was too hurt to risk being caught sneaking out of her room.  
  
Tomorrow she would wake up early and go for the letter. If the wind hadn't swept it away, which probably it had. It was howling and crashing against her window at the moment. Aileen rolled up in a ball, hugging her scratched knees.  
  
Either way, she wasn't going to have time to look for it. Every month, the students were taken on an 'educational' trip, and though she had to admit museums weren't exactly her cup of tea, she preferred to go than to stay another day in that place.  
  
Aileen turned in her bed, every inch of her groaning in protest for the effort. Finally, after adding another number to the list of 'things I would do to Miss Hornell if she was not such a cow,' she managed to doze off.  
  
* * * * * * *  
  
She was there again. The room she had been in in her previous dream. Aileen looked around, expecting to find the man in the corner, but there was no one there. She walked toward the door and pulled it open, hoping she was one step ahead of the policeman that made her trip...but no one came. Maybe she was dream mistaken, but there was something familiar about the house, though she couldn't think of what.  
  
The room was warmly lit, though Aileen could see no lamps or any source of electric energy. The girl felt sudden warmth, as she had never felt before. The place seemed to be vibrating with happy memories. There was a chimney with orange flames roaring welcomingly at her, and the warmth in Aileen's body increased to a point she felt she was...home.  
  
She felt a sudden urge to rush to the circular sofa next to the fire and sleep in her own dream until they waked her up. Dreaming was certainly wonderful.  
  
She looked around the room, which she noticed, had a strange, unreal quality to it. Even the walls were strange. They were different shades of blue, and the next second, they were a pinkish white, that turned to a soft brown before changing to a deep night blue. She looked around the room, wishing she had eight eyes so as not to miss anything. But her eyes stopped on several picture frames on the mantelpiece.  
  
She looked at them with curiosity. On the first one, there was a handsome man smiling at Aileen, but the curious thing was he looked strangely familiar, though the closest thing she had ever seen to a man was the bus driver.  
  
He wore round glasses, but his bright green eyes were still visible beneath the tousled mane of jet black hair, and a curious scar shaped liked a bolt of lightning was stamped on his forehead.  
  
Aileen looked at him for a while and turned to the other two. The next one looked like a large, family picture. The man in the previous photograph was standing there, but he looked younger. A red haired boy stood next to him and so did a girl with bushy brown hair. Then, two tall boys who looked exactly the same were embracing them in (judging by their faces) rib cracking hug. A smaller girl with fiery red hair was sitting in front of them.  
  
It was a funny picture, since all of them seemed to be wearing black robes and a snowy owl was perched on top of the green-eyed boy.  
  
She moved to the other picture and she felt her stomach clench, just as if someone had just dropped her from a large height. It was a very young and rather pretty woman with long silky brown hair and blue eyes, holding a baby girl tenderly in her arms. It was the baby who made her jump. She had emerald green eyes, messy jet-black hair and pale complexion. Feeling as though she suddenly had no insides at all, she turned to the picture of the man.  
  
She stared at him hard, as though expecting something to happen. And happened it did. Suddenly, the man winked and his smile broadened, turning his head toward Aileen, who backed instinctively, severely freaked out. Moving pictures? No way! Not even dreaming! She wanted to get a closer look at the picture, but just then, she heard something behind her. She turned around and was surprised to see the man in the picture bursting in the room, holding what looked like a bundle in his arms.  
  
She caught a glimpse of his face. Tears were running down his cheeks, but his eyes were burning with a fury that scared Aileen. As Aileen stepped backwards (not sure if she had to take part in her own dream,) he rushed to the room Aileen had come from, hesitated and turned to a staircase Aileen could swear wasn't there a second ago.  
  
She thought he wasn't coming down again, but then the door suddenly burst open, and I mean burst, it exploded, wood splinter flying everywhere and shooting against the walls. The atmosphere changed in two seconds. The fire went out, and the lights turned a dying red glow. Aileen looked around and tripped over her own feet at the vision. She backed in horror from a tall hooded someone. He was covered in straps of black robes, a long thin stick stuck out of his left pocket.  
  
But it wasn't that what made her clap a hand over her mouth to drown a scream. It was the smell, like rotten or burnt flesh, even his breath, that he gasped in hollow, rattling seemed to be exhale disease. But worst of all were the eyes behind the hood. His face was covered, but two red slits gleamed like rubies hidden in the darkness.  
  
He stood in the doorway, his straps of clothing floating and slithering like snakes. He seemed to be waiting for something. He seemed to have found what he wanted, for he turned facing a wall, and Aileen didn't know how she knew, but she could swear the man had just grinned, a devilish, menacing evil grin, just the smile a crocodile would give his victim before snapping their necks it two. A sudden burst of something and the green-eyed man appeared out of nowhere, his face washed in sweat or tears, Aileen couldn't tell.  
  
"Still feeling sorry for that mudblood? Let me tell you how she died. First I tortured her..."  
  
" Shut up!" he shouted furiously, making Aileen jump. He too had a stick...wand, and was pointing it threateningly at the man. Aileen couldn't help but raise and eyebrow.  
  
"He's gonna kill him with a stick?" but there was no doubt the other guy was insane.  
  
Just then, someone burst into the room, not for the first time that night. In came a man with greying brown hair, brown eyes and pale complexion. He looked just the way Aileen felt after a few nights Hornell's torture, except for the pained expression in his eyes. The next words came in a blur, so Aileen wasn't sure if she had really heard them.  
  
"Harry DON'T! That's what he wants. Either way will end the same! If you kill him, you'll be killing y..."  
  
"I've said ENOUGH!!! GET OUT OF HERE!!! I don't care what will happen next as long as he is dead!" he (Harry?) bellowed. "You cannot help me in this one Remus. You've done enough, its time for me to end what I started," and then, a blinding flash of green light and Aileen woke up, screaming in terror.  
  
Aileen screamed and sprang out of bed, tripping over her own feet and landing face down on the floor. She lay there for a while, and suddenly she broke out laughing nervously. "It was a dream again...how stupid can I get?" she thought still bending over with contained laughter.  
  
She managed to stand up and crawl to bed again. The girl rubbed her face against a pillow. She remembered her dream, but smiled at the thought of knowing it was only a dream. "Who would have believed it though. Moving photographs, sure" she said and giggled again before falling asleep.  
  
Next morning when she woke up, she couldn't remember anything except the face of a young man with bright green eyes veiled in mist. 


End file.
